Mike Janyk enters second stage of career

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VANCOUVER - There were moments during last season’s World Cup slalom season when Mike Janyk admits he was “scared” to get into the start gate.

He was questioning himself and his equipment.

The Whistler product had been Canada’s best technical event skier over the previous few years, posting his only career podium at Beaver Creek, Colo., in 2006, earning a bronze medal at the 2009 world championships and finishing ninth and then 13th in the slalom standings in 2009-10 and 2010-2011.

With a fourth, six fifths and a sixth in those two seasons, he was clearly an elite slalom skier. But, agonizingly for Janyk and Alpine Canada, he wasn’t quite fast enough to reach the podium.

So, with one eye on the Sochi 2014 Olympics, he decided to change things up, make some subtle fixes to his technique and his mental approach going into the 2011-2012 campaign.

“I wanted to let go of the athlete that I was -- throwing in some good results here and there, good runs, a couple of podiums, sitting in the top 10, top 15 -- and I wanted to be the No. 1 skier in the world,” he said in a recent interview before heading to Europe and Sunday's season-opening slalom in Levi, Finland.

“Consistently on the podium and going after being No. 1.”

Instead, things got worse last winter. He had just one top 10, a seventh in Adelboden, Switzerland, before the World Cup Finals in Schladming, Austria, in March, and finished a disappointing 21st in the season standings.

He still says he knew the changes had to be made. “But it was really hard to embrace them as the results weren’t there.”

While also battling an ankle injury, he went through a five-race stretch where he was 19th, 18th, 20th, DNF1 and 19th.

“[I was] so scared in the start gate, more than at any other time in my career. It was unbelievable. I didn’t want to go in the start gate.”

But on a tough course in Schladming, one on which overall World Cup champion Marcel Hirscher of Austria failed to finish his first run, Janyk was a strong, encouraging 10th.

The fear and the self-doubt seemed to evaporate.

“I was like ‘Yes, I want to do it.’ I started to get the vision back and so I’m really looking forward to this season.”

Now 30, Janyk says last season was tough, “but in some respects it was very insightful.”

The biggest adjustment, he says, was learning to stop looking for affirmation and reinforcement from coaches and to trust his own instincts.

“I needed to believe in myself and know that I can do it, I can achieve it, that my intuition is right,” he says. “It was kind of weird, you feel kind of alone at the beginning, then you’re like ‘should I trust myself?, should I believe myself?’ As that grows, it becomes greater and greater.

“When you have a result like that 10th place, that was all me, with the support [of staff], obviously, but it was all me. It felt really special. It felt as good as my best results. Going forward, I really feel this is the second stage of my career.

“If it works out, or not, I have put my intention directly on the top of that podium. There’s no failure from here on out. I’ll learn so much about myself, more than I ever would have staying in that comfort zone of being a 10th-place athlete.”

Janyk also believes part of his troubles last season can be attributed to the inferior product from his long-time ski supplier Rossignol.

“Last year, the slalom skis, they were brutal, to be honest.”

Other Rossignol-equipped skiers also struggled. Jean-Baptiste Grange of France, the overall slalom champion in 2008 and second in 2011, fell to 22nd last season. Sweden’s Axel Baeck, 14th in 2011, dropped to 24th last season. Grange has actually left Rossignol and will use Fischer skis this season.

“We were having trouble when there were changing conditions,” said Janyk of last season’s skis. “[Rossignol] has adapted and I was just loving them when I was over in Austria [for pre-season training].”

Janyk was seventh in Levi the winter after his podium in Colorado and also has two DNFs at the traditional World Cup season-opener.

“So, it’s been good and bad, but I love it there, actually. It always seems like an exciting sprint.”

Once leery of writing down goals because he then became too afraid to look at them, Janyk admits he is now aiming big.

“My goal is to win a Globe [as the season-long slalom points leader]. Now, I have the self-confidence to see the stepping stones to reach that and how I’m going to get there, physically, mentally, technically.”

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